Blue is one of the more difficult colours to achieve with plant-based dyes. The ancient Celts used woad, and the ancient Asians used indigo, and that was pretty much it until synthetic dyes were invented. I’ve ordered some indigo seeds from my favourite local seed company, just for fun, and I will be looking up what sort growing conditions woad wants (cool and wet, with a side order of rocky outcrops, probably).
In the meantime however, I started to experiment with black turtle beans. The idea is, that the water you soak the beans in before cooking them can be used as a dye bath, and some people have achieved some very pretty blues.
So I saved the water that I soaked the beans in for last week’s soup, and followed roughly the same procedure as with my first experiment, except this time I did mordant the fiber in 1.5 tsp of alum and .5 tsp of cream of tartar. I wasn’t quite so lucky this time, rather than blue I got a pale sage green:
Which is pretty, but is not proving to be very lightfast, and so won’t be very useful – though the stick I was using to stir the fiber in the dye bath went a lovely blue-purple colour! I’m going to experiment with black beans some more soon – I’ll try rainwater rather than our tap water (which is quite hard), and I think I under-mordanted the yarn, too.
Because I was a little disappointed with these results, I mordanted some more yarn (this time with 1.5 tbsp of alum and .5 tbsp of cream of tartar, and I also simmered the wool in the mordant for twice as long), and dunked it into a strong solution of Rooibos tea. 10 tea bags out of the Tetley Rooibos box, simmered in about 2 liters of water. It turned out the most glorious, rich gold!
I forgot to take a close up picture of the dyed skein, but here’s an artsy shot of it hanging to dry with the yarn I mordanted:
And my first three balls of dyed yarn:
Next I’ll be working more with black beans, trying onion skins for yellow/orange, and waiting for the buckthorn and wild apple trees in the hedge to come into leaf so I can try for the greens that the young leaves are supposed to give… And then there’s the tall field buttercups, which supposedly give purple, and lady’s bedstraw (yellow), and Queen Ann’s Lace (olive-green)…
out here 
I am really enjoying this series and can’t wait to see what colours you get next! Lichens are also good for colours … I think there’s one that gives a magenta! If you don’t already have it, you might want to seek out this book: http://www.librarything.com/work/2078542/book/9456121
I plan to investigate lichens soon – from what I’ve read the colours you get tend to depend heavily on the type of soil / minerals in your area. Thanks very much for the book recommendation, I’ve added it to my wishlist (and seeing as how the CND$ is heading towards par with the US$ again, I have a good excuse to order some new-to-me books)!
Gorgeous! That gold is fabulous. And I quite like the sage green, so it will be interesting to see if more mordant/softer water helps the colour and lightfastness.
I’m looking forward to the buttercup experiment.
I’ve grown woad before (USDA hardiness zone 4, in central Vermont)–it was not difficult. However, although I didn’t have this trouble, I have read that it can become invasive (its seed production and scatter habits are rather like canola- or mustard-type plants). I meant to try dyeing with it, but I wasn’t ready when the plant was, so it was just ornamental in my garden for a couple years.
Thanks very much for the information – if woad will grow in Z4 in Vermont, then in will almost certainly grow in my part of Ontario. We have about 6 acres, and if the woad wants to compete with the all wild mustards on our land, it’s very welcome to!
Wow, The colours are stunning. And I particularly like the photo of the yarns hanging to dry.
Really beautiful colours, and I love the photos, too!
More please!
xox
P.S. Has your orchard emerged from the snow, yet? If at any point you could post a photo or two of the trees’ progress, Devon (and I) would love it. She often asks after “her” cherry tree!
The orchard is just starting to emerge from the snow. Devon’s cherry tree is full of buds. As soon as the first leaves appear, I will post a picture for her 🙂